Duhs9919

I'd be interested in pics of them. That would be an awesome goal to get into. I am currently a 20/22 pants size, but getting banded Monday.

I have heard from several people to invest in a great lotion to help with my skin bouncing back. Any of you expert banders out there have any suggestions or lotions that are tried and true? Thanks. Amanda

Good luck!!

So I have spent most of my day obsessed with my liver...or quite frankly its size. It is driving me insane that I don't have a clue what size it is or most importantly if it has shrank enough for surgery! Really, I think our bodies should have a peep hole so during times like these we could see inside. I've mentioned before I have to shrink my liver for surgery. My surgeon has said that if he gets in there and its too large he will not do the surgery. At this point, aside from me dropping dead or aliens abducting me that could be the only thing standing in my way. I even tried to get my Ob-gyn to ultra sound my liver. He informed me that I would be fine and that really wasn't his area of expertise. LOL! Many people have told me that about half of the doctors out there do not require pre-op diets and some others have told me its just a tool to motivate people to start losing weight. Either way, still would like to know what size it is! Tonight I went out to dinner and I managed to look the food monster in the eye and be good. I ate my lean meat and broccoli and it was actually really tasty. I am getting stronger and stronger in these types of situations which gives me hope that I am really making very good changes that will help me to continue to be successful with my weight loss. Hooray for a non-scale victory!! Tomorrow I am to be at the hospital at 0830 for my pre-op appointment, which I am assuming consists of them taking blood out of me and I am sure signing some kind of paperwork. I've never had surgery before so I am not all that clear on what that entails but I will find out. I am so freaking nervous/excited that I don't know what to think/do. It will be surreal to be in the hospital where in a few days I'll be in for my life changing surgery. I just hope I can navigate where to go without getting lost or looking like an idiot. Following the blood giving event (I DO NOT give blood well), I will drive to the surgeon's office and meet with the dietitian. I will have to turn in more of my food log (sent some in last Friday) and they will weigh me for the last time before surgery. Every time I went to True Results for my appointments I wore the same outfit, I am torn between wearing my tried and true good luck outfit or winging it. I am usually pretty superstitious so we will see what I decide on in the am. I just hope that the scale numbers are on my side tomorrow. I've lost 11 lbs total so far but I would like to lose another 6 lbs for a total loss of 17 lbs by surgery. We shall see. Anyways, I am going to sign off now and hopefully get some sleep. Although I am sure I will end up staring at the ceiling most of the night. I also hurt my back today fiddling with the window on my truck. I hope that goes away soon too. Sweet dreams y'all. Until tomorrow, Amanda

I have been following the diet to a T but I am still really nervous about making sure my liver has "shrank" enough. I'm just terrified that my surgeon will open me up and find a big fat liver and close me up. Anyone have any tips/pointers/advice? Thanks. Surgery is Sept. 10.

Well I have decided I am just going to try and ignore worryiing. I am sticking to the diet. I have actually found the liquid diet to be working really well. I would never have said that a week ago, but it does get easier.

Thanks Visionary!!

So after not having great success with the numbers on the scale going down all weekend, I woke up this morning to discover I had lost 2 lbs!! Its better than Christmas morning...well almost anyways. Today I am 6 days out until surgery. I am getting more and more excited as the days go on. I go on Thursday for my pre-op appointment at the surgery and to do my final weigh in at the surgeon's office. So woo hoo. I will definitely be working out during lunch tomorrow. I have been craving pizza something terrible lately. I ate it a good bit before I started my diet but still having a hard time kicking that habit. Today at work we had a safety meeting during lunch and they ordered pizza. I have to admit that no one asked me if I wanted any, which they are famous for doing, but while they were eating their pizza and I was drinking my shake I felt left out. However afterwards when I realized I had kept my mouth to myself I was proud. I have to really get used to not eating all of the bad things when the whole group is eating bad. You can ask most people, I am really not a follower, but when it comes to food I am very much a follower, it is usually pretty easy to get me to fall off the good choice bandwagon. Attached is a picture of the pizza party and my shake there in the middle. Woo hoo me!! The hardest part right now is controlling my bite sizes. I am supposed to be taking a bite the size of the first joint on your pinkie finger and chewing excessively. Also I am not supposed to be drinking liquids while I eat. This is to keep from washing my food down my stomach quicker so I feel full longer. Whenever I go out to eat, I've never been the person who gets 100 refills of their drink. Usually I barely make it through one. But for some reason now that I am trying to monitor this its become extremely hard. Tomorrow at dinner, I am not even going to sit down with a drink. Maybe this will take away the temptation to drink. I've pretty much decided on only making healthy choices and not eating carbs, but its the little things I am worried about perfecting before surgery. Such as the small bite, excessive chewing, and no drinking while eating. What if I can't master these things? I think I mentioned the baby plates and kids silverware that I bought. I have been eating smaller portions but starting tomorrow I will bust out the plates and silverware. I have also attached a picture of the broiled tilapia and spinach I had tonight to show my portion sizes. This is the smallest plate I have besides the baby plates. This will force me to seriously monitor my portions and the silverware will make me take smaller bites. I know this is an ongoing process, just have to keep working on it until it becomes second nature, just like eating terrible food did in my "past" life. That and I know the first time (or probably second and third time too) that I have issues with how big of bite I took or washing my food down, I will really feel the effects and focus on following the rules. So to summarize, do not be a food follower, be a leader and make good food choices, continue working on fine tuning lap band eating habits until they are second nature, and do not give into temptation. I can do this, tomorrow is only 5 days until surgery!! Until tomorrow, Amanda

I can have a protein shake (20 g of protein or more each) for breakfast and lunch. Then I can have a small dinner, 3 oz lean meat, 1 cup green veggies, 1 cup of fruit.

Banderama, I would absolutely die if I could only drink protein shakes. I'm on 2 diets a day and then 1 meal at dinner. Dinner is 3 oz of lean meat, 1 cup of green veggies and 1 cup of fruit.

Yes Fostermomma!!! We have to think positively!! But I agree, I will be beyond disappointed if I wake up and no band. I'm super jealous that your surgery is Friday. Please let me know how it goes and how you feel!! I am also True Results!! Good luck.

Thank you guys! I am just a worry wart and freaking out. I have followed the diet perfectly. Just want this so bad, I dont want anything to stop it from happening. And as of this morning I am down another lb for a total of 11!!

Been following them to a T. Just nervous, its not like I can take a peek and see if it's getting small. Just worried that this might be the last road block to the band.

I really hope so!! Thanks LiveStrong!

Sounds amazing!!!

So I haven't posted in a couple of days. Here is the summary of my wacky adventures this weekend: Thursday- went out with a couple of coworkers to steak night. I managed to get by without completely blowing the diet. Friday- came down with a sinus/ear infection and went to the clinic in Walgreens to get some antibiotics. Had to get that cleared up before surgery which at that time was 10 days out (feeling much better now). Also I was exhausted from the aforementioned steak night and also having to make a middle of the night run to the ship yard for work. So I was in bed relatively early. Small victory- I did manage to find these protein shakes that taste yummy called Pure Protein at the Vitamin Shoppe. I had wanted to try the other flavors before making a financial investment by ordering a case of them. By the way, the banana and vanilla rocks!! Oh and stay away from the cookies and cream, it should be called yuck in a can. Saturday- AKA Day 1 of Hell- Up until this point I had managed to stick to my diet and was holding steady at 10 lbs lost. The day started out crappy with a wake up call from my boss at 730 a.m. to which resulted in having to call several members of my crew, waking them up and finally another trip to the fleet and then the ship yard. Luckily I was home by 930 and back in bed for a nap. My day gets worse. I saunter across the street to see how all the out of town family guests are doing and what they are doing. Of course, being the good time having people they are, they were all drinking and eating really yummy things!! I was able to stave off temptation for a while. But eventually gave in and tried a cracker with jalapeno jelly on it which led to a couple of chips with salsa. At this point, I decided that I was going to go outside and swim 50 laps in the pool so at least if I was going to have a few things I would at least have worked out. I swam the 50 laps and also treaded water for 5 minutes straight. This afforded me (in my mind) a spoonful of Spanish rice with dinner. I stayed away from the alcohol though, the whole not shrinking my liver enough for surgery thing really worries me. If I make it all the way to the operating table and the surgeon opens me up but doesn't do surgery, I will be intolerable. Saturday night was our fantasy football draft and I have to say probably the most annoying thing ever. Everyone was drunk, except of course me and very obnoxious. I guess when you are on the outside looking in, it is not as fun. On the upside, my new found hobby of not drinking has revealed another talent, designated driver! Sunday (today) AKA Day 2 of Hell- I woke up and weighed, and thanks to some miracle I was still at the -10 lbs I had been at all weekend. Part of me was really excited that I hadn't gained any weight but I was also really sad that the scale hadn't moved down either. I decided that the little cheats I had given into the day before were really stupid and that I needed to pull it together, turn the cheek to temptation and be motivated to see the numbers on the scale drop. We all went to Galveston to enjoy the "beach." I can say that I stuck to my diet very strictly. No cheats. I had my shakes and even on the way back from the beach, stopped to pick up my 2nd shake at a gas station, I had to settle for Muscle Milk, which I am not normally a fan of, but it did the trick of tiding me over. I also swam some in the pool and treaded more water. At one point I did have a melt down and attacked Nick over sampling some of the cucumber I was very deliciously enjoying while reading a book (book = distraction from copious amounts of drinking). It just sent me over the edge, that I had my small bowl of cucumber and that he, who could eat anything he wanted was "stealing," my allotment of cucumber. In my head it was no different than me walking up to his plate and stealing his potatoes. It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. I had been surrounded by temptation all weekend and was doing my best to ignore my growling stomach, the fun being had by all, and all of the bad food items around. It was like an alcoholic working in a bar or a crack head living at a crack house. I snapped and went off on Nick, telling him to pretty much F-off and go eat his own much more tasty food and to leave the starving girl's cucumbers alone. This resulted in me having to go home, have a melt down and refocus. I eventually rejoined the party, apologized to Nick and stuck it out on the diet. Tomorrow will put me exactly 7 days out from surgery. I am really really excited but nervous, the light is getting brighter at the end of the tunnel. I feel like I am carrying around a very fragile expensive vase that I am trying to transport across country ensuring that it arrives in 1 piece. I don't want anything crazy to happen before the surgery to make it not happen, I just want to make it across that finish line. I am resigned to sticking to the diet, working out more this week, being very strict with my portion sizes and hopefully watching the scale move downwards. My goals is to be a total of 17 lbs down by surgery. So we shall see if I end up at my goal. My advice to any of you going through a similar situation, when surrounded by temptation, no matter how bad you want to give in and have something bad just remember, you are doing this for a reason and that reason and it's direct result is greater than a momentary lapse in judgement. Also the guilt the next morning is not worth it. Keep your eye on the prize. Until tomorrow, Amanda

Lost 2 more lbs this morning for a total of 5 lbs since Monday. Woo hoo!! Got in 1.25 miles on the treadmill while on lunch at work. Managed to stay on my diet even though I really wanted to eat a cheeseburger. I can say that it is getting easier. Slowly but surely. Emailed the surgeon's office today and got my questions answered and the nurse practitioner told me that they might move up my surgery. I am sure she means a few hours, but my hungry, food deprived brain took that as a few days. I know I seem to be in a rush, but I am just tired of feeling hungry. If I could deal with this normally I wouldn't need the band. But surgery day will get here eventually. I did saute some really yummy squash and zucinni tonight along with a 3 oz portion of top sirloin. I cut it into really small bites and ate very slowly but it still didn't mush up a lot. So I am wondering if I might be at the end of the line for steak. We shall see. I have also backed off drinking while I eat and I can say that it does help me to stay fuller longer. Anyways, I am watching one of my fav shows, Necessary Roughness so my rambling will be reduced for tonight. I'll post if my exercise increased my weight loss tomorrow. Oh and my headache did not show up tonight, after 8 bottles of water!!! Until tomorrow, Amanda P.S. Someone ate the banana....

Surgery set for 9/10. Been on pre-op diet since Monday. It is a challenge, I chew A LOT of sugar free gum because I miss chewing. But I know it is worth it in the end. I have the eye on the prize. I just hope the next 12 days don't drag on.

I too had to wait the 6 months and then had to seem like jump through hoops to get True Results to send my file to the surgeon's office. But out of the blue last week they called me with a surgery date, I wasn't expecting the call until this week. But either way, I have surgery scheduled for 9/10. Trust me it will go by quickly. Seems like now I have the date it is crawling. Best of luck.